The committee said it wanted to honour Amnesty International for its work in protecting people who had been jailed because of colour, religion or political beliefs.

The committee said it wanted to honour Amnesty International for its work in protecting people who had been jailed.

The 1977 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the London-based human rights organisation, the Amnesty International. At the same time, the prize committee awarded the 1976 prize — not given last year — to Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams, leaders of the Northern Ireland peace movement. In a statement on the awards, the Nobel Committee underlined Amnesty International’s efforts to abolish torture and capital punishment and praised the work of Miss Corrigan and Mrs Williams toward reducing the use of violence in Northern Ireland. The committee said it wanted to honour Amnesty International for its work in protecting people who had been jailed because of colour, religion or political beliefs.

Soyuz Can’t Dock

A jinx that has haunted the Soviet space station programme since 1971 stuck again when two cosmonauts failed to dock their craft with the Salyut-6 orbiting laboratory. The mission commander, Vladimir Kovalyonok, and flight engineer, Valery Ryumin, thought to be planning a long stay aboard the new space station, were ordered back to earth after abandoning the link-up. The official agency, Tass, reported that there had been “deviations from a planned docking regime” during the approach while Soyuz 25 capsule was 120 metres from the station.

Union Minister for Industry George Fernandes said the industrial policy statement to be announced would contain a plan of action that would remove impediments, hurdles and bottlenecks in industrial growth. “The central theme of our industrial policy is man, neither profit, nor public or private sectors,” he said, while speaking at a meeting under the auspices of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Fernandes said the multinational undertakings that hurt our national interests will not be allowed, accepted or tolerated.